


"Runner Five is a werewolf lol" - Jack Holden

by Shad0wFlight34



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: I'll try to put spoiler warnings at the top of each chapter, NO ONE KNOWS, Other, Werewolf AU, not a lot of spoilers I think, runner five is a werewolf, takes place just mid season 2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2019-08-08 05:30:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 11,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16423322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shad0wFlight34/pseuds/Shad0wFlight34
Summary: Sam is needed for a secret mission that needs someone with Sam's specific skillset, a canton runner goes with him.The Canton runner comes back saying they got separated and Five takes off to find him.Too bad it's the full moon tonight and it's getting late.





	1. how in the fuck has five lasted this long without being found out like holy shit

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really edit much but I'll probably get around to editing later so I don't get caught up in fixing shit and actually write and post new chapters. I'm basing a lot of this on the werewolf lore I've been working on for an original series and I'll add a note on the next chapter explaining it all. Please comment for the love of god i need that sweet sweet validation. i dont write a lot of fanfiction and also im just kind of a weirdo so its probably gonna be a bit cringey but i refuse to be shamed into silence

When the shape of Sam and the New Canton runner started to disappear from sight Five climbed onto the roof of the comms shack to keep them in view just a bit longer, no one was especially happy about Sam going out for an actual mission but apparently his specific skill set was needed and couldn't be utilized from the safety of Abel.

Even after the two had disappeared from view, Five remained on the roof. Several people tried to talk them down but everyone quickly seemed to realize it was easier to leave them be. Five settled in to wait. They'd managed to snag some hard boiled eggs which they peeled eating the eggshells first followed by the actual egg, while eating the eggshells was kind of nasty every bit of food was important at times like these, especially with the full moon just hours away.

It was late afternoon by the time a figure appeared on the horizon cresting a nearby hill, Five was on their feet in an instant, pacing up and down the roof trying to spot the second figure, but only the first remained, approaching Abel at high speed, Five scrambled down from the roof, their mind racing, _where is he? That's not Sam coming back, hair color's wrong. What happened? Where is he?_ The questions echoed through their mind and they ran to the gate, skidding to a halt and pacing along its length waiting for the New Canton runner to be let in.

The New Canton Runner was barely through the gates before Five was in his face, hands darting signs “where is he? What happened? Is Sam ok?” the Canton runner backed up, “I don't...” he gestured to Five, “I don't know sign language.” The runner averted his gaze, avoiding Five's furious glare. His salvation came in the form of Janine hurrying over, pushing between the two runners, “What happened?”

“We- We got separated, I-” “Five wants to know where you were when you lost him” Five spared Jody a grateful glance “the old mill, he went west, I went east-” Five didn't stick around to hear the rest, running to their room to begin packing what they'd need as their mind ran calculations, it was already four o'clock, the sun was setting around seven thirty, the transformation would start in earnest around eight, eight thirty if they were lucky. The old mill was about five and a half hours away at their best speed _why did they go so far away god damn it._

There was no way to avoid it, even if they found Sam before they they turn- _transformed_ , the word turned had a horribly different meaning now that made their skin crawl, there was no way Sam _wasn't_ seeing them like that, not if they intended to find him before tomorrow, _which they did_ , Five paused for the first time since realizing Sam was missing, maybe it _would_ be easier to look for him tomorrow, Five hadn't even needed to wait to hear it said that a search party would be sent out early tomorrow, no one would send runners out this late, totally reasonable, too risky for a runner that could be turned. Not for five though, not that anyone knew it. Maybe it _was_ too risky, not for the reasons anyone would think. Five cringed slightly at the thought of the punishments that would surely await them upon their return, no amount of gratitude from a safe return would make Janine and the Major ignore that Five had snuck out against orders, and suspicion was high at the moment not the time to be _mysteriously unscathed_ in zombie territory... _too bad, I'm finding him. He's going to be safe one way or another_ Five thought grimly, stuffing a canteen of bulk powder mixed with water into the doggy backpack and clipping around their waist like an unwieldy fanny pack and setting the note on their bunk _Going to find Sam, most likely back by tomorrow afternoon, I know I'm in trouble so don't bother with telling me when I get home, just tell me where to sign in for punishment duty, sorry for the worry -5_

The guards in the watchtowers didn't notice Five until the runner hit the ground on the other side of the fence, Five flashed them a quick peace sign and began jogging away, the guards tried to order them back but they only sped up to sprint, they kept up as fast a pace as they could manage to ensure no one could catch up but slowed after almost an hour to catch their breath.


	2. transforming is Nasty

Five didn't need to check their watch to know it was almost eight, hunger made their stomach feel like it was turning inside out looking for more to digest, their skin was painfully sensitive, and they were getting more irritated by the second as a fog closed over their brain, demanding they find shelter, they had set out a little while ago and though they were loathe to slow down, Five knew they had to find a shelter to ride out their transformation. They knew there was an abandoned shack near here and they turned into the woods to find it.

 _The blood will attract predat-FOOD FOOD FO-burning u-SHELTER_ , Five's mind churned with the usual worries that instinctively rose just before the transformations even if everything was safe, their skin was burning, starting to lose its grip as the flesh beneath it bubbled horribly, Five pushed the shack door up behind them, the window was boarded but not well, Five needed the escape route but worried about zombs getting in _I'll only be vulnerable for a few minutes_ they thought desperately through the wailing in their mind.

They huddled up behind a rotted couch and set up, clipping the doggy pack around their neck and torso, removing their clothes and putting them inside the pack, setting out food, and ensuring the note they had written to Sam poked out noticeably from the pack while still ensuring it wouldn't come loose as they ran, all while silently chanting the mantra _find Sam, keep him safe, bring him home_ it was important to tether their mind to the idea or they'd inevitably forget what they had set out to do, the Wolf's mind was not good at holding onto more than one or two simple ideas.

Five dropped the hunk of slightly off meat scrap and curled into the fetal position, the pain was as unbearable as always and their mind filled with numbing chemicals as their bones disintegrated and reformed and flesh and hair grew over them.

Three zombies, lured by the smell of meat and blood broke through the window just as the Wolf stood up and shook itself and it leapt on them in an instant, gripping one by the neck and shaking it violently so the delicate vertebrae snapped and the body went limp _there were always predators_.

These predators were clearly absolutely stupid, they didn't flee from the primal beast's culling of their packmate but instead fell upon the beast, ripping at the flesh on its back and shoulder, the Wolf tore them to shreds in moments and licked its wounds, feeling uncharacteristically ill as two aggressive diseases warred at the site of the bites, but lycanthropy hadn't survived millennia by being beaten by any other disease and slowly but surely, the zombie plague was purged from the Wolf's body.

Normally the Wolf would have happily eaten the flesh of these predators, rotten or no, but some newer instinct from the Host clawed its way to the surface and wailed against it, the Wolf sniffed cautiously at the rotted corpses, some ancient memory adding to the Host's cautions, it turned away and began to eat what the Host had brought with it, then leapt through the hole that the predators had left in the confined space, and rolled in the dirt outside cleaning the viscera and coating itself with the scents of the land.

The Wolf's mind scattered and raced, picking up scents, and toying with desires; running, hunting resting... but a sharp leash kept pulling them into place, keeping them tethered to an idea despite the myriad of interesting scents and sounds that came on the night air, eventually after the mind ran in confused circles for a while, it turned to focus on the idea, _find_ the thought demanded, some forgotten name and language spoke with words the Wolf couldn't understand, but it understood the feelings that burned in its chest, _find, protect, bring home,_ the Wolf tried to remember who this was to them, there were flashes of memory, a face, a smell, a voice though the Wolf couldn't remember what the words were it felt the meaning in the tone and tried to piece together the role of the speaker _a packmate? Yes, that's it, but more somehow? A mate? Close, close... it was buried in there somewhere..._ The Wolf shook its head and put its nose the breeze, the scent trail of the packmate that was more than that, along with some irrelevant other was outside the woods and the Wolf turned to follow it. _Find, protect, retrieve._ The Wolf's mind focused on the task as it set off after the trail.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so; werewolf lore time:  
> werewolves will generally transform shortly after moonrise and change back shortly before sunrise.  
> Both transformations are super grisly, the transformation into the Wolf causes the body to heat up from the sudden growth, the bones partially disintegrate and reform in better positions to accommodate both standing upright and running on all fours, their skulls melt down too and extend, their flesh and skin bubble and are almost cooked (the disease is the only thing stopping it) and the blood literally boils.  
> The wolf form has human eyes, thick fur and pudgy fingers with pads on the underside and claws on the tip. Its torso usually stays the same shape but flesh grows over it, making it slightly larger.  
> The front legs meld into long legs so they can't properly bend, and the back legs change to weird mutated dog legs.  
> They sprout a tail and sharp teeth push through their gums. Basically: horrifying.  
> The transformation back is also horrible to look at, though different,  
> The flesh that has grown over the Host's body comes loose and falls off, the head is the last to be affected and the Wolf's head will usually attempt to recycle nutrients by eating the loose flesh, self-cannibalizing.  
> The legs disintegrate and return to form first, the head last, during the head reformation, the werewolf will almost always lose consciousness, waking up after a few minutes with a clear but exhausted head, the werewolf usually wants to sleep but can still travel some distance before passing out if prompted, they find it hard to complete complex tasks or think coherently (think if you stayed awake for three days straight with no coffee)


	3. Chapter 3

The Wolf's legs carried it far faster than the Host's could have, though it had to slow somewhat when the packmate's trail was swamped by the rotting predators, the packmate and the other split ways somewhere along the line, and the packmate eventually seemed to lose the rotting predators, making the trail far more certain. The Wolf followed it to a small structure made of wood, the trail ended at a dead end, a piece of wood that the Wolf couldn't move and could only just poke the tip of its nose under, the packmate was in there the Wolf could smell him, hear him too if it strained its ears. It stood up onto its hind legs and tried to pry the wood away, it attempted to wrap its paw around the round hunk of metal embedded in the wood, a memory of the Host assuring it that it would allow the wood to swing away, but the clumsy toes couldn't seem to grasp it and Wolf dropped to all fours, frustrated. The smell of fear was wafting from the structure, agitating the Wolf and urging it to find a way in.

It circled the structure, breathing deeply and scratching at promising gaps, it eventually settled on a hole in one side, thin strips of wood were secured across it, blocking the Wolf's path, but it felt certain that it could break through them with some effort.

The Wolf rose again to its hind legs and slammed its shoulder to the wood which cracked promisingly. The Wolf heard the muffled scream from inside and slammed itself against the wood with as much force as it could muster in a anxious burst, breaking through and landing on all fours inside the structure.

The packmate was inside, curled up in a corner with his hand over his mouth, eyes wide, and an overwhelming smell of fear pouring off him. The Wolf looked around the room and scented for danger but couldn't find what caused him fear. In a more lucid state it would have been clear what had scared him, but the Wolf's mind writhed and muddled and couldn't see deeper than simple things, He was a packmate so there was nothing to make him fearful here.

The Wolf approached its packmate in a rush of enthusiasm, it may not have remembered the full extent of their relationship but it felt the happiness and relief flooding its limbs and knew it was glad to see him, which would be nice if it were not an uncanny abomination of primal fear inducement rushing directly towards someone who didn't know who it was and was already having a pretty scary day.

The stick thumped hard into the side of the Wolf's head, causing it to stagger, ears ringing as Sam Yao took off running, usually a solid idea in the zombie apocalypse, but a pretty bad one when facing a pursuit predator. The Wolf's mind was still tethered securely to idea of protection but confusion and instincts muddied the plan and made it hard to remember that chasing the running man down had more to it than the simple thrill of the chase.

The Wolf caught up fast, an average wolf has a top speed of about 35km/h whereas the best human athlete is only around 20km/h, and sitting behind a desk all day doesn't exactly lend itself well to high speeds. It almost sunk its teeth into the back of its leg, but the scent of him closed its mouth better than any muzzle as some back part of its screamed something to the effect of _don't you_ dare _bite him_ , it instead wrapped its front paws around his waist and pulled him easily to the ground. He struggled and screamed which only fueled the the swirling mess in the Wolf's head. Doing the only thing it could think of, the Wolf pinned him down with front paws and licked his face desperately, trying to soothe his panic. The opening jaws mere inches from his face did a surprisingly good job at quietening him as his fight or flight response gave up the ghost and resorted to freezing.

After a few seconds with only something that reminded him of entering the dog kennels back at Abel, Sam's brain rebooted and he started noticing things like the doggy backpack clipped across the animal's shoulders, and the folded paper with his name written on it poking out of said pack...

He cautiously reached for it, keeping one eye on the creature that had moved onto licking his hair as though trying to smooth it, the full moon overhead was enough to read by out in the open,

_Hey Sam,_

_It's 5. In case you haven't figured it out I'm a werewolf, the big weird-looking dog that you have obviously encountered is me. I just want to,_ several things had been written and crossed out before Five found the words, _give you some key information._

  1. _I am not myself right now. Hopefully that was obvious but uh, the brain on werewolfism is not a pretty thing and I just want to say that if I scared you, or bit you, or humped your leg, or something equally horrible/embarrassing I am SO SORRY PLEASE DON'T HOLD IT AGAINST ME_

  2. _Jumping off the first point, I probably don't fully recognise you, being in wolf form is kind of like having a super bad fever dream after suffering a really bad blow to the head, right now I have no idea what's going on beyond vague memories, we hang out all the time and,_ more crossing out, Sam was pretty sure they'd written the first sentence, crossed it out, written several other versions, crossed those out, ad eventually returned the original, _I really care about you, so hopefully the smell of you has ingrained itself hard enough into my brain that I'll recognise you as a friend (that probably sounds weird, but your brain gets weirdly smell-orientated as one of the effects of lycanthropy so its not THAT weird and you'll just have to trust me on that)_

  3. _Zombie bites won't turn me, I never get sick because the werewolf virus basically eats any virus that enters its turf (my body) and I have discovered that this includes zombie bites_

  4. _IMPORTANT: IF YOU HAVE BEEN BITTEN BY A ZOM YOU NEED TO GET SOME OF MY SLOBBER IN THAT WOUND I DON'T KNOW IF IT'LL BE ENOUGH TO SAVE YOU BUT IT'S WORTH A SHOT, BEING A WEREWOLF IS A MILLION TIMES BETTER THAN BEING A ZOMBIE PLEASE DON'T DIE_

  5. _If I bit you, firstly again I'm sorry and secondly it's going to be ok, being a werewolf is pretty hard but you'll be fine_

  6. _It occurs to me that maybe you'll be really mad about lying about something this major and if you are I'm sorry. I would have told you but,_ more crossings out, _it's complicated, it's not just me that could be endangered by that knowledge, and to be honest I was scared, I want to cross that out but as long as we're keeping it truthful there it is. We can talk about all this when I can comprehend language again_

  7. _please don't tell anyone. I know that should probably be higher on the list, but I'm writing this in a hurry. I don't know what will happen if people find out I have a highly contagious disease that turns me into an unrecognisable monster with almost no mind left beyond instincts that is spread via a bite. Those aren't exactly people's favourite things at the moment._

  8. _Please for the love of god don't look at me when I'm transforming, it WILL scar you for life. Basically the extra flesh and skin is going to fall right off me, its gory and gross and I don't want you to see that._

  9. _I'm going to be naked and covered in blood, I have a big canteen of water mixed with basically grass and herbs that I'll use to clean myself up but we're going to need to move fast before the smell of blood attracts zoms. Also my clothes are in the bag and it's going to be really hard to find the co ordination to get them on, so yeah. I am so sorry._




_I'm out of time, see you soon, love you_

When Sam finished the letter, he stuffed it back in the wolf's backpack in a trance, and stared at the wolf's face.

The fur looked fairly normal, except there seemed to be glossy black fur, longer than the rest, sticking up between its ears. It was unnaturally big, he thought it was probably seven feet on its hind legs, and burly too. Glancing at his chest where the wolf's paws still pinned him, he noticed that its toes were closer to human fingers than dog paws. The eyes were probably the scariest thing about it, and the most compelling evidence that this really _was_ Five and not... well, whatever else this could possibly be. Sam had seen enough of Five's eyes to recognise them, even though the pupils took up almost the whole iris, he saw the sliver of greyish green. He gulped, “Five?” the wolf's head tilted and it wagged its tail.


	4. gee, if only SOMEONE hadn't flushed him out of his hiding spot, FIVE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hit a pretty hard block with this chapter, I had a lot of the earlier chapters worked out in my head, and I have a few of the later ones worked out, but this one was an awkward transitional chapter that I felt was necessary but pretty hard to figure out. I don't think it's too bad and hopefully you all feel the same. Thanks for your support.

The packmate was making noises, the Wolf didn't understand it but liked the sound of his voice, it heard the rotting predators coming from a while away but didn't feel especially worried at first, two or three of the creatures wouldn't be an issue, more and more joined them, and the thought suddenly bit at the Wolf's brain that the creatures were forming a pack far larger than the Wolf could take, and that it was getting far too close. The packmate didn't appear to have noticed so the Wolf gripped the strange pelt that hung over his skin and tried to tug him the direction the Wolf had come from, towards _home,_ he smelt confused, but thankfully followed it, the Wolf let go of his fur when it was sure he was following it.

The night suddenly felt far more dangerous to the Wolf, now that it had a largely helpless packmate, he seemed almost blind and deaf beside the Wolf's sharp senses, stumbling and moving with painful slowness, the Wolf ran wide, defensive circles around him to ease its paranoia, but it couldn't go far without the packmate calling out to it, quietly but enough to worry the Wolf that he would attract predators so it tried to stay within his limited sight.

There were even more of the rotten predators than the Wolf had grown used to since things had Changed, the Wolf couldn't remember what had caused the Change but suddenly its comfortable routine had been shaken up. Before it would wake up in a nice dark spot with nothing worrisome nearby, it would be surrounded by good food and it wouldn't even be that hungry for having just woken up, it would hunt and run as far as it wanted before winding down and changing back without a hassle.

Then suddenly things changed. Suddenly it woke up too close to packs of humans, it awoke to the rotting predators closing in, once it even awoke to one gnawing on it. It could make short work of them, but the sheer numbers and horrible stench of them were a major nuisance that could turn deadly if too many swarmed. It woke up hungrier too, and the food was just scraps, clearly scavenged. The Wolf didn't like it.

The packmate was moving too slowly, the pack of rotting predators was catching up slowly but surely and the Wolf dared not leave its packmate to fend for himself to attempt to drive them away, it could hear his ragged breathing as it came into step at his side and attempted to urge him on, pushing against his hip. One of the packmate's paws rested on the Wolf's head, gently scratching behind its ear. The Wolf briefly allowed itself to enjoy the feeling before turning to snarl at the approaching pack.

Sam regretted not bringing an axe or at least a more effective weapon than a big stick he had found when his gun had run out of bullets, the new canton runner had been better armed and had made a lot of promises about keeping Sam safe but then they'd been separated and Sam had been left almost completely defenceless, so so much for that.

Five kept disappearing into the bushes which made him nervous, their note had said that they'd be easily distracted, what if they forgot he was there and abandoned him in the middle of the woods? He knew it was probably stupid, but he'd call Five back when they wandered too far, hissing their name into the darkness and looking around anxiously until they came trotting back to him.

He could hear zombies getting closer but however much the runners claimed he was one of them, he didn't have their stamina, and he'd already been on the move since six that morning, he felt like he was going to collapse.

Five came to walk alongside him and pushed against his hip like they were trying to push him to go faster, “sorry, Five, we've _got_ to find somewhere to hide so I can rest, I'm not as fit as you” he mumbled, reaching down to scratch their ears. Five pushed their head into his hands, but then suddenly turned around and began snarling, Sam whirled around as the first of a huge hoard of zombies stumbled through the bushes, Sam turned to run just as Five took off sprinting directly towards the hoard.

 

 

 


	5. tfw you feel weird about how little happens in a chapter but also would feel weird about not including it because it's a transitional chapter and you feel people would feel its absence (AKA sam has a weird dream)

Sam wasn't sure if the kills Five made would count, but Simon had better pray they didn't because they were a beast (literally), he hoped what Five had said about being immune to the virus was true because they were taking a lot of bites in the few moments he watched dumbfounded before the adrenaline kicked in. He was about to turn and start running when he saw Five go down as one particularly fresh-looking zom with a t shirt advertising alligator wrestling managed to get a grip on their neck just behind the jaw and hold on despite Five's best and increasingly frantic attempts to force it off. The second wave of zoms seemed to hone in on Five's struggling, Sam kept an anxious eye on them as he slipped within striking range, lifting his stick. Five was thrashing about which made it hard to take a swing at the zombie without risking missing at hitting Five instead. Sam was starting to panic and consider just risking it when Five made eye contact and froze, it only lasted a second, but that was all he needed.

He put as much strength as he could muster into a blow to the zombie's head, it wasn't enough to kill it, but it knocked it loose from Five's neck and the two made a break for it.

They ducked through the trees, Sam's exhaustion momentarily forgotten until the adrenaline wore off.

He spotted a tree with broad branches and scrambled up and out of sight, he worried briefly about Five which proved unnecessary as they reached him in a single impressive leap and settled beside him in the branches. The tree had been an amazing pick as it was one of the kinds that flattened out at the top of the trunk, making a secure little nest.

Sam settled himself in to wait, despite the situation his vision was blurring, and as he watched the hoard slowly pass beneath the branches he slowly slumped against Five, who was crouched beside him.

Sam's eyes shot open, the familiar sight of the runners cabin roof was missing, replaced with open, starry sky, and he could feel a weight on his stomach and a furry body was pressed against his side. Sam's heart pounded as he struggled to remember where he was, slow with terror he looked down his chest to see a horrifying doggish face with human eyes staring right back at him, he felt his heart stop for a second, before memories came rushing back.

“Oh hey... Five, how, uh, how long have I been asleep? Not that you can answer, right?” Five tilted their head and thumped their tail softly against the wood. Sam sat up and ruffled the thick fur on the sides of their face, it was pleasantly soft. He also noticed that the bites along their neck and back seemed to be healed over which was weird, good though how did that happen? Sam glanced at the sky, it was almost midnight, it wouldn't be getting light for ages, “probably best to stay here 'til it gets light” he knew Five probably didn't understand him but it didn't feel right to ignore them, “head off in the morning”, his throat felt dry and it was cold out, “you've got water in your pack, right?”

Five didn't seem perturbed by him unzipping the bags on either side of their back and rummaging around, inside he found a crude map of the area, a tightly rolled up blanket, two water bottles one of which smelled strangely like a garden, there was also a watch, some bland-smelling biscuits in a ziplock bag, and Five's folded up clothes. Clearly Five had put their abilities of stuffing abnormal amounts of supplies into seemingly too-small spaces to use. Sam drank a small amount of the water which he was certain had some of runner Three's bulk powder in it (Simon had strong armed him into trying some before a workout once and it was as disgusting as last time), he poured some of it into his palm so Five could have a drink too, which they seemed to appreciate.

He only ate one of the biscuits which tasted about as good as they smelled. He tried repacking Five's bag with less than perfect results (seriously, how did they do that), but managed it by wrapping himself in the blanket instead of trying to put it back in.

Sam settled in with his head resting on Five's side, staring up at the sky and wondering if he should try to stay awake as he wasn't sure if Five would wake him up if danger approached but he didn't even finish the thought before falling asleep.

He was sitting next to a river, Five was sitting beside him in their human form, they both had beers. Five had their bare feet in the water but Sam felt weird about it and had his legs crossed instead.

Five was holding his hand now, turning towards him mouth opening to say something. Opening wider and wider, too wide.

Five's wolf-head pushed its way out, it was vaguely surprising but in his dream state not especially frightening. They growled at him.

Sam woke up to the sound, it was quiet enough that he probably wouldn't have heard it if his head wasn't still on Five's stomach. The undead were moaning at the base of the tree, Sam peaked over the edge. There were only a few, but they would soon begin to mass. Staying up there was no longer an option, more and more zoms would show up, blocking their escape route until there was no hope for rescue.

Five didn't wait for Sam to figure out what to do, jumping down and luring the zoms away from the tree so he could scramble down without being swarmed, catching up easily and keeping close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shout out agentdragon for encouraging me to continue, it means a lot to know that people what is a pretty self-indulgent thing lol.  
> this is a bit of a transitional chapter without much going on, but i felt it was important to the flow of the story, hopefully i can get back on track from here.  
> thank you for your continued support. i am determined to follow through with this fic.


	6. In which Sam has more feelings about Five's suffering than Five does

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> now featuring nervous ticks!  
> I could probably end it here, but I'm planning to extend it a bit further and maybe expand on it a bit, a bit of canon divergence if you will.  
> Please let me know if you're interested in more, and thanks once again for all the support.

The sun was beginning to rise and the Wolf knew that it didn't have much time left before it would be left weak, bloody, and exhausted. It had re-entered its territory and knew they were close to the den. The river was generally the best place for the bloody process cleaning them and washing away the stink of blood that would attract predators.

The packmate was still close, and the Wolf was torn between slipping away and keeping him close. The choice had to be made soon, hair was shedding from their body at an alarming rate, and their flesh shuddered as it started to loosen, the Wolf paused to rub itself in the dirt to alleviate the horrible itching.

The river was close now, the safe little den that had been hollowed out just under the edge of the bank urging the Wolf on.

The packmate ended up solving the problem of his presence by climbing up into a strange nest secured in the higher branches of a tree, impressively concealed in the branches with a vertical path that the Wolf couldn't follow and the rotting predators certainly had no hope with. Flooded with relief the Wolf ignored his noises and made a break for the river, casting around for the subtle markers that the Host had left along the bank to guide them to their hidden den.

 

 

The sniper's nest had been put up ages ago, a clever idea by Five who had pointed out that it would be a good idea to have a hidden safehouse right near Abel in case someone got stuck out in the field after the gates had been closed for the night. Five had had a lot of very... specific and clever tricks for that, automatic garden misters that concealed any human scent, a concealed rope ladder that no zom could climb, the fake leaves; the tiny treehouse was totally hidden unless you knew where to look, snipers and lookouts used it sometimes, so it was pretty clean. Sam anxiously tracked Five's flight to the river he forced himself to let them go, they knew what they were doing, they'd survived this long without anyone worrying about them, not that it stopped him.

Five disappeared among the trees near the river, but Sam kept looking out for them for what seemed like forever before finally turning his attention to Abel, the gates should be ready to open in maybe two hours, would Five be back by then? How long would the transformation take? What kind of state would they be in? Sam's hand moved instinctively towards his mouth and he had to force himself to lower his hand and not chew his nails, that was definitely not a good idea, though you'd think that the months of trying to get out of the habit would have started working, but the moment the pressure was on his fingers automatically went to his mouth.

Sam had had time to become thoroughly bored by the time Five staggered out the woods, the real Five this time, totally human, though worse for wear. He almost didn't recognize them, they were covered in mud, weren't wearing a shirt, and were staggering about as they made for the hideout, Sam met them at the base of the tree, which was good as, even with his help, they struggled to make their way up the ladder and collapsed as soon as they were in; pulling the blanket towards them and snuggling up to Sam in a half-asleep wriggle.

Only in the following moments of calm, did the strangeness of the day really hit him. He cautiously wiped away some of the mud, their skin was completely intact it seemed, no sign of the nasty fights they'd been in just a few hours ago. They looked exhausted and despite his burning curiosity and confusion, Sam didn't have the heart to disturb them, even if he could rouse them, which he doubted.

What did end up waking them almost an hour later wasn't even intentional, Sam had tried to eat another one of the flavourless biscuits in Five's pack and the sound of the plastic bag crinkling caused Five to sleepily paw at his chest, eyes barely opening as they reached for the bag and ate most of the biscuits in the desperate manner of someone who hadn't eaten in a week, only slowing when they made eye contact and sheepishly offered him the remaining contents, 'sorry, I get like that, changing burns a lot of calories'  
Five's eyelids were fluttering like they might fall asleep again but they shook their head and leaned back, 'you, probably have questions right?'

“well, I mean, yeah obviously.” He did. He really did, but somehow he couldn't think what to even ask them. The two of them sat in silence for a moment.

“how- how long have you, y'know?”

'I got bit when I was about twelve. First transformation around sixteen.'

“do you... remember what happened? Last night?”

Five narrowed their eyes in concentration, 'some of it, I think... You ran away from me, right? I remember chasing you,' a look of anxiety made its way onto their face, 'I think I nearly bit you.'

“You didn't, just sort of- tackled me to the ground.” Five wasn't looking at him, staring anxiously out the window instead, Sam hesitated, “I mean, would it be that bad? I mean, you're immune to zombie bites, right?”

Five looked back at him, 'It's better than being a zom, but it's... hard. You need a lot of food to keep you from going feral when you change, or collapsing. I've been eating off food to keep myself going, but that's barely enough for one. Plus it would be trickier for more than one person to sneak off every month.'

“Why are you keeping it secret then? We wouldn't kick you out, especially not since you've been here so long, you're not dangerous, and you're immune! No one in their right mind would get rid of you!”

Five ran their hands through their hair a few times, looking like they were struggling with something, fidgeting before finally signing, 'it's not just my call. There's... communities of werewolves who've been hiding out for generations, and I'm worried that... bad things could happen. People might go out of their way to get bitten by werewolves, can you imagine how bad it could get if everyone collectively lost their minds every month? If there were too many they'd inevitably not get enough food and would go around hunting anything they could find, the farms that people have been building up would get destroyed, and...' They broke off and stared at him, 'you see where it could lead, right? When you turn, and you're hungry...'

Sam could see where that could go, and shuddered, and Five looked away again, their breathing ragged, 'I thought about telling a few people, maybe Maxine, in case she could use it to figure something out, but... I don't want it spreading.

Sam stared at his hands. It made sense, but it sounded hard. And Five had put it all at risk to find him and try to keep him safe.

“Does it hurt?”

'yeah. Its one of the few places my shredded vocal chords are useful. My screaming doesn't really attract zoms.'

Sam couldn't help it, he flung his arms around Five's waist and started crying. Five hugged him and made soothing noises, which felt wrong somehow, they were the one who'd had such a hard time with it all, “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's just-”

Five slipped into their code, the one they used to communicate over mic, when sign didn't really work,  <I'm ok. It's fine.>

Sam leaned back, “but... there's been so much, you've been dealing with this as well as, well everything?”

Five shrugged, 'I've been dealing with it since I was a kid, any tragedy is lost on me, it's just... life. And it's not so bad, it hurts but you're usually so out of it that it doesn't really... stick with you. Like childbirth, how the brain releases a bunch of chemicals so you don't dwell on how bad it hurts?'

“Jesus.”

Five let out a short laugh and patted his shoulder. 'Yeah.'

“So what, you're just going to keep sneaking out, into the zombie-filled woods, to turn into a wolf, for basically... however long this lasts?”

Five looked uncomfortable, 'I don't know. But I don't know how I'd even go about telling anyone about this.'

“Maxine wouldn't tell anyone, I think. She'd see your point.”

Five looked down, 'maybe.'

“I won't tell anyone, but... It's not safe to live like this, the world's so unsafe now, and you're so exhausted once you turn back, a pack of zoms would tear you apart! If you just told a few others, maybe the Major, we could figure out some way to keep you safe.”

'I know. I'll think about it. It... It means a lot. Knowing that you support me. Thank you.' They looked out the window, 'we should probably go in soon. We both need some sleep.'

“Right... you should... probably put your shirt on”

Five looked down at their naked chest and made a token effort at brushing the mud off before pulling their shirt over their head.

 


	7. lying sucks and sam is bad at it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not too sure about this chapter, it was another one that felt like more of a slog but still needed to get done, I think.

Janine was pacing furiously and while her anger _was_ justified, Five agreed that they had been reckless, they were finding it hard to care or focus on what she was saying, they'd had their checkup with Maxine and Janine had been waiting for them the second they stepped out of the hospital, it had been almost an hour since they stepped through the gates and all they wanted was to wash the mud out of their hair, curl up, and sleep for a week.

They were somewhat glad that Sam was still getting his checkup, since there was no way he wouldn't _strongly_ object to Janine yelling at Five, even if they _did_ deserve it.

The fact that they looked exactly like they were about to fall asleep in the yard only seemed to aggravate her more, but Five couldn't manage to keep their eyelids from drooping along with their shoulders.

Janine's voice had become a distant buzz when a new voice cut through, Five straitened as the Major approached, though she still swam in and out of focus.

She didn't look happy, “I take it you already know that there will be consequences for ignoring orders. _In my defence, I didn't really hear them._ Five knew better than to say so, it was an excuse through and through, and they didn't want to be that kind of person.

'I was aware that it would be frowned upon and I accept my punishment. I was reckless and I have no excuses.'

The Major nodded and Five felt a strong twinge of admiration and appreciation for the fact that she didn't feel the need to drag it all out. They felt the two of them understood one another, the Major saw why they behaved the way they did, and Five knew why they needed to be punished. Neither of them felt the need to beat around the bush.

“You will be confined to Abel until I decide you can be trusted, during that time you will be doing the more unpleasant work we can find for you. There are a lot of holes that need digging, I'm sure.”

Being confined stung, but it made sense, Five bowed their head slightly, 'yes, sir.'

“Very good. Shower, rest, and report to Janine tomorrow at noon for assignment.”

Five nodded, throwing up a loose salute, and staggering to the showers.

Apparently their thrashing about in the river hadn't completely cleared them of blood, either that or there had been some _really_ red dirt in that mud. So probably blood then. They had been trying to splash the red-tinged water into the drain when they heard the door start to open and panicked, tapping their knuckles against the wall of the shower to try and alert whoever it was that there was someone in there.

In a clearer headspace, Five probably would have kept in mind the fact that at a certain point, a lot of people had given up on trying to maintain any kind of air of mystery or whatever and that even if whoever it was had heard them, it most likely wouldn't slow them down.

Sam staggered in, and made it half way to the cubicle before he even noticed them, “oh, Five. Hey. You ok?”

'Yeah, just trying not to leave a mess for whoever's next.' they kicked at the floor again, hoping to get the last of it down the drain before the shower shut off, then ran a towel over themself and pulled an ill-fittig dress on. They really were the best clothes when you were too tired to bother with balancing to try and put pants on. 'See you in the runners bunks'

 

The dreams were weird.

They were always weird. After such a strange experience, the human brain would try to sort through them, and so werewolves always had weird dreams the night after.

There was a lot of chasing, and a lot of being chased, often at the same time. Something was snapping at their heels even as they snapped at the heels of something that fled them. At first it was Sam, but he kept changing form, Sara, Van Ark, a zombie, even a hare that they had hunted down once several years ago. Their limbs felt heavy and when they looked down they had somehow ran up to their neck in mud. They tried to keep running, struggling and thrashing about, their head had sunk under the mud when they felt something grip their shoulder and shake them.

Sam was leaning over them, and Five almost headbutted him while sitting up.

“you ok, Five? You were thrashing about in your sleep, almost smacked right into the wall!”

Five noticed Jody standing behind him, 'I'm fine I think it was just the stress' they glanced meaningfully at Jody and back, “Oh right, _stress_. Of course. Real stressful, rescuing me and all.”

 _oh god._ Sam really was a terrible liar. Five suddenly felt a lot less confident about their ability to keep their secret. _Maybe I should hint we had sex to throw her off the trail. Wait no, that's a terrible idea. Don't do that, fuck. That's the dumbest thing you've ever thought. Don't you dare._

There was a horrifyingly awkward pause, as Jody looked between the other two in confusion, before mercifully breaking the silence, “uh, ok. I brought you your dinner? You were out cold when they served it, but I was sure you'd be hungry, so I grabbed it for you.”

Five _was_ hungry, and they enthusiastically accepted, glancing out the window; it was evening again, not too late though.

There was a long silence as Sam and Five ate, Jody sat on the bed, fidgeting. Finally she blurted, “It was really brave of you. Going out to find Sam like that, even though it was getting dark. We didn't... some people were thinking you wouldn't come back. We were setting up a search party to go out looking for you tomorrow morning. We didn't even get the gates open and you were already back, how did you manage to survive?”

Five forced themself to not to look away, keeping their expression calm, 'Sam had already got part of the way back himself when I found him. We got caught out and had to run part of the way back in the dark, that's how I ended up falling in the river. It was pretty dumb to just go running off like that.' Five tried to keep track of their story, they'd have to go over it with Sam to make sure they had it straight.

A few more people showed up as Five tried to brush off as much as they could, 'I was mostly running on panic, it's all kind of a blur'

Eventually the other runners were tired enough to go to bed, and Five slumped back into sleep, cuddling up between Sara and Sam on the mattresses that had been pushed together on the floor to allow the runners to sleep closer together. It felt safer that way, and was a blessing when it got cold.

It felt deeply right to be a part of a larger pack.

 


	8. werewolves are the most implausible creatures and you'll sound weird if you try to tell people you are one

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> can you tell i don't have the energy to write decent dialog? i can! burnout's a bitch.

While digging trenches was painfully boring after the third hour, it did give you a lot of time to think carefully.

They had come to know Maxine fairly well in the, what, year? Two years? However long they'd been at Abel. They felt pretty confident that she was trustworthy, she'd see the potential consequences of people finding out, and even if she didn't, she'd probably respect their wishes, right?

It was hard to be too confident though. People could be unpredictable, even when you knew them. _What's the worst that could realistically happen._ Their mind flashed to deeply unpleasant places, tied down, teeth filed off, unpleasant injections- _REALISTIC! No one here would do that, stop being so stupid and paranoid. Ok, realistic. She'll probably want to get samples from when I change, maybe observe the wolf behaviour. Brain scans maybe? Maybe she'll start pushing me not to leave Abel for transformations. It's risky, but it's way more risky to stay in the walls. Too likely to get spotted, or cornered, or startled, end up biting someone. She might want to go out when I change, I mean, seeing how it works would probably useful to her. It's so risky though._ Five shuddered to think of _anyone_ trying to take blood samples from a freshly-transformed werewolf. They didn't even like the idea of someone going near them without several hours of mental cooldown, when the frenzied panic had had time to quieten and they stopped wanting to eat anything they saw.

It could be better to have some sort of camera set up so they could keep a safe distance, but no way could they get their hands on the tech without alerting Janine...

Five shuddered slightly at the idea, they liked her just fine, but they didn't feel overly confident about her reaction, maybe it could have been ok before but nowadays... The risk of telling had always been notable, but not so bad back in the day, most folks didn't have the resources to track you down if things went south, and there were plenty of werewolf colonies to disappear into. She was certainly _very_ high on the list of people they would _really_ prefer not to find out. Five had a nervous feeling that she could track them down to anywhere if she really wanted to, and that was the kind of person you tried to avoid.

_Ok, so no cameras except the ones that're already up- are those ones secure? Someone could be hacked into them, or they could be hooked up elsewhere-_

“Ok, Five, that's enough for now. You can head back to the runners' bunks now.” Five flinched slightly at Janine's voice, licking their lips nervously and putting the shovel away before heading back to the comms shack to find Sam.

 

“So, wait, it's actually _called_ a wolfsbane potion?”

'There's a proper name for it, but I don't know how to pronounce it and I'm pretty sure everyone calls it that, or some other nickname. I knew a guy who called it werewolf vodka.'

“Well, can you just take it every month then? We could just hide you somewhere and wait it out.”

'No, its not healthy, it's ok to take it in emergency situations, but if you take it too much it causes brain damage and a bunch of other nasty shit.'

“Oh.”

'Yeah. Maybe on the first night though.'

Five stretched their legs out and rested their feet on Sam's lap, they'd been talking for almost an hour about the ins and outs of controlling the wolf post-transformation, they hadn't even gotten to the lead up. Sam got squeamish over zombies, reasonable enough but Five was pretty sure he wouldn't like even _hearing_ what was going to happen to them on the full moon; the skin-melting, the bone breakdowns, the boiling blood... They were pretty sure _no one_ should have to see that. That was something else to talk about, _not today though..._

They sat up, fiddling with the string of their hoodie, 'I just don't know what to expect. I had like two people who knew about it before, and they found out independently so I didn't have to explain it to their face.'

Sam reached over and placed a hand on their knee, hesitating for a moment, “it'll be ok, Five. We'll talk to her, and... well, it'll be fine.”

Five tapped their foot nervously, 'ok, we'll wander down to the hospital, and _if_ she's the only one there, I'll... talk to her. About it.'

Maxine _was_ alone, sitting with her feet up, rolling bandages, it made Five's heart drop, just a bit. There was no excuse now.

“Oh hey-” she caught sight of Five's expression, “Five? Are you ok?”

They were sweating, 'I needed to discuss something with you, it's not- It could help with your research, maybe. But it will sound really weird, and I kind of need you to... not tell anyone.”

“Ok, that's uh.” She gestured to some chairs.

Five's leg jiggled uncontrollably as they sat, 'This is going to sound like a bad joke, but it's true. Sam can back me up on it.' _Deep breaths._ 'I have this disease that I contracted when I was twelve, it's not... really known to...” _don't look at her face_ “humanity, really, except a few fringe groups who happen to _have_ it'

“Five, what-”

A quiet, high-pitched tone rang in their ears and stress clouded their brain, _why are you doing this, what were you_ thinking _? You sound stupid, you sound_ crazy _, no one believes you. Better hope she_ doesn't _\- too dangerous- what were you thinking? Barely two years with them and you spill your secrets? Shameful. Too dangerou- she won't believe you -sounds like a joke. No known disease acts like that- no sense- stupid-_ They were breathing hard, rocking frantically to try and calm down, they froze when they felt Sam's hand on their back, he was leaning in close and talking, trying to calm them, they sat up sharply, 'I'm fine.' they took a deep breath, 'just forget I said anything.'

“Five, whatever it is, it's ok-”

Five glanced between her face and Sam's, licking their lips, _I could still make a run for it, she can't make me tell her, Sam probably wouldn't either... Why am I doing this,_ they took another deep breath and silently went over the reasons, _One, lycanthropy makes you immune to the zombie virus and that could help with a cure or vaccine. Two, it would make seeking medical treatment easier as I wouldn't be dodging blood tests and physical exams. Three, she might be able to help me find a safer place for my transformations that will leave me less likely to be torn apart by zombies. Four, she can help cover for me around the full moon, maybe figure out a way for me to get some more food... Ok. Ok. There are benefits. It_ would _make my life easier. But will she believe me?_

'Sam, can you... just say it for me, I'm not feeling good'

It was a little easier just letting someone else do most of the talking, only butting in to add details or clarification, like why exactly they'd once spent three days in quarantine because they refused to let anyone take blood samples.

They let her take some blood, burying their face in Sam's hoodie. They hadn't been lying when they said they hated needles.

As stressful as the situation was, watching Maxine do a double take at the microscope and then proceed to run every test she could think of and even flick through a few of the scant tomes she had relating to blood diseases and defects was somewhat amusing. There were a lot of people in werewolf communities who studied to become doctors or scientists, and they always said the lycanthropy virus was unlike anything ever seen and anyone would have a hard time believing their eyes for the first time.

Finally she sat back down, rubbing her temples, “so... you say you... you undergo... rapid growth? Every full moon...”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the hectic schedule, a whole lot of shit hit the fan in my life recently; my guinea pigs got heatstroke and died because my real estate insisted i keep them outdoors in the australian summer (normally i just kept them inside anyway but the person doing the inspection was late so they were outside for almost an hour), then my the company we rent under tried to kick us out with just two weeks notice and we had to spend several days gathering evidence that their claims were false (they were) but the end of our lease is coming up so we're frantically trying to find a new house before april. then i got a really nasty cold which i am only now getting over. needless to say it's been a Bit Of A Bad Month for me.  
> i hope to be in a new place soon so i can have a bit less stress so i can pour all my processing power into writing instead of worrying about the future.  
> i'll probably be doing some oneshots as they're a little easier for me so please be patient.  
> thanks for your continued support, with special thanks to agentdragon, okamiisadog, and ceem902 on tumblr. your comments mean a lot (:


	9. the true monster of the series rears it's head (not really)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaand I'm back! sorry about the hiatus, it has been a real doozy of a past few months, been bouncing around trying to find permanent residence.  
> Still not there quite yet, but I've got it together enough to manage a little more writing.  
> I'd also like to let you all know that I'm also working on a "Runner 5 is a werewolf lol"... "second draft" if you will.  
> This fic was meant to be a oneshot, and was structured as such, but since I'm making it a whole Thing, I've been going back and writing a quite a bit more, earlier chapters, setting up bigger plotlines, etc.  
> I'll continue to work on this first draft primarily, just to get it all down, but hopefully ya'll will see a more well-structured, better-paced, and more polished fic in the future (:  
> Hopefully will get back on track soon and have a more frequent upload schedule, but no promises just yet.

Five had missed the support of a knowing community, though admittedly the more well-established colonies didn't need to learn. It honestly made them wish they'd paid more attention during those lectures Harris had given about how exactly the virus worked.

The containment basement they'd managed to build was looking promising considering it'd only been two weeks in the making, though they were still planning to pile furniture against the door just in case.

Five wasn't sure how Maxine had managed to pull it off without anyone getting involved, but it apparently was being covered up as some other experiment. She'd also managed to get a more direct delivery of the usual “uneatable” food for them.

They were doing a test run, or as close as they could get, tonight for tomorrow's full moon. One of the hardest things for Five was controlling their anxiety. This felt like a terrible idea, all the more so that they didn't have every possible thing planned out. Even with a full month to prepare, Five felt certain that there were a million ways this could still go wrong. Hell, they could think of a lot just off the top of their head. They could get loose. Someone could walk in even if they weren't allowed. Five might make too much noise. They might panic and try to escape. They might bite. It was all too much.

At least they could do some testing on their defences tonight.

Maxine closed the door, “Ok, so we'll just... move this... couch... in front of the door...” Five waited until the grunting subsided and maxine's voice came from under the door again, “ok, so we see you on camera, it's directly attached to the screen so no one else will be able to access it.”

Five nodded, almost to themself, and signed to the camera, 'so you know what we're doing, right?'

Sam's voice came through this time, “yeah we got the instructions you wrote... Wow, this is really neatly written, how come you're never this legible in reports?”

'I took my time. What's the most important thing to remember first?'

“Don't disturb you while you're eating?”

Maxine spoke up, “So we wait until you've stopped eating and have calmed down. Then Sam is meant to talk to you?”

'It should help me remember'

“you're not going to chew my hoodie, are you?”

'No, probably not. The smell is helpful. Let me smell it for a second, then start talking. And then?'

“We'll open that hatch in the door and let you get a sniff of Sam-”

'don't stick your whole hand through, just to be safe, keep it just out of lunging range'

“I still don't really get why you're so worried, I mean you were fine when you came looking for me”

'yeah, but I had...' Five hesitated, grasping for a way to make it make sense, 'a task in mind. I had a point A and a point B and a lot of focus. I'd run for hours by the time I found you.'

“Can't you just... like, focus on not biting me?”

'It doesn't work that way, I think I could only really do that if I focused on looking for you and I'm not sure how I'd interpret what's going on and it might just agitate me more. Werewolves don't tend to respond to being caged very well, generally speaking, so we're banking a bit on the fact that I'm somewhere familiar with packmates nearby. I hope we won't have to resort to those darts but if I try and break out you need to put me under.'

“Right, so once we're sure you're settled,” Maxine said, “we'll try that trick you suggested to get a saliva sample for me to look at, a longish jar with some peanut butter at the end, then... what? Just keep you locked up all night?”

'Pretty much. If I wasn't so concerned about how well this will work, I'd suggest getting some blood too, but I just want to keep it easy for the first night so I have less to be worried about. We've got plenty of dog toys that should keep me interested, just be careful with the lazar pointer.'

Sam giggled, “I'm actually _really_ looking forward to seeing that.”

'Yeah...' Five looked around the room, taking in the big plastic dog kennel they'd managed to work into a shelter, the plastic sheets and the blankets that had already been heavily bloodstained enough to cover up the fresh blood that was about to drench them.

“So we can expect you to change back around 3am, when you'll start getting agitated and trying to hide, probably in that kennel we set up, and... god, you're going to chew your own flesh off?”

'Yeah, both ends of the process are very grisly. If you _were_ in with me, that'd be the time to back out slowly and close the door behind you.'

“Right. So, when we're sure you're done, we've been granted a bucket of water, so we'll let you wipe yourself down, then I want to do another quick exam. That's all?”

'Yeah, that's all.'

Five looked anxiously around the room before slowly circling it one last time, looking for anything that might give their wolfish counterpart any ideas. They couldn't find anything, but that still somehow felt like a cold comfort.

 

'Ok, Sam, look away. It's starting' Sam diligently averted his gaze but felt his blood run cold as... sounds made their way under the door and to his ears.

It sounded almost like those crunchy slime videos one of his friends had shown him back in uni, but somehow far worse. Wet popping and a horrible grinding sound, like if you edited out the sound of the machine from those shredding videos. He could also hear the quiet whistling sound of air escaping Five's lungs as they tried to scream or whine, it was almost unbearable and he heard Maxine retch.

He glanced up but quickly thought better of it when he saw just how much _red_ there was _,_ slapping his hands over his ears and squeezing his eyes shut.

It felt like an eternity before he felt Maxine shake his elbow, he glanced up but she wasn't looking at him, her eyes were fixed on the screen.

Five's back was to the camera as they crouched over the trough they'd filled with food scraps, head and neck disappearing into the pile as they ate as though their life depended on it, which admittedly it probably kind of did? He was amazed they could breath like that.

He'd been sure that the amount of food was overkill when they'd set it out, it was almost Five's weight and he'd been certain that they'd be putting most of it on the compost heap, where it had been going anyway, come morning, but seeing in person (or, over camera, but still, in real time) how fast it went down, he suddenly fund himself afraid that it somehow wouldn't be enough. That Five would lick the bowl clean and turn around looking for more. He found himself wondering if they'd have time to get to the kitchens, whether they could satisfy them before they got loose. If he and Maxine would even get out alive.

After about a minute of terrified observation he noticed that Five seemed to be slowing. Their head, a scrap of potato peel hanging off one ear, started to turn about more, looking around as much as it went back to the food, before they eventually seemed to lose interest all together and began sniffing around the perimeter of the confines. There was some food left, but not much. Sam let out a heavy sigh of relief as he watched them stop to lick their chest and scratch their ears.

Finally he looked at Maxine, she was staring at the small screen that showed the temperature from the infrared cooking thermometer they'd set up, her hands covering her mouth as she stared in mute horror. Sam reached out to touch her arm, “Maxine?”

“Two hundred and twelve.”

“What?”

“Their temperature reached two hundred and thirteen degrees, Sam.” She finally turned to look at him, “I- they- Blood _boils_ at that temperature. They should have cooked in their skin, I- You need to go to the emergency room when your fever reaches a hundred and _three_ , Five's more than doubled that-” She stared at the screen where Five was standing on their hind legs to sniff at Sam's hoodie, “That's uh... that's about 100 degrees Celsius. I thought- there was no way-” She took a deep breath.

“I kept thinking, all month, that this _had_ to be a joke, or some kind of shared hallucination between you two. I wouldn't have even believed you if I didn't know you so well. I kept expecting you to laugh and say you'd got me and you couldn't believe how gullible I was or something. Tonight I figured I'd see _something,_ but I just thought it'd be Five freaking out for a bit, I- I probably wouldn't have humoured it if it weren't for those blood samples, I kept going back to them over and over, and...” She let out a sigh, rubbing her eyes, “This is... a lot.” After a moment of silence she shook her head slightly and reached for the instructions, “Right. Now...”

A loud whimper cut off their thoughts and both Sam and Maxine’s heads snapped around to look at the camera.

Five's pacing had become more agitated, they ran anxiously around the enclosure and started pawing at the crack under the door, Sam could hear the snorts as the breathed heavily at the door and he quickly leaned over to read the instructions as his mind drew a complete blank on what he was meant to do.

Talk to them.

Right.

He did that all the time. Didn't need to know they could hear him. Talking was what he did.

He opened his mouth but somehow, for the first time in, god _ages,_ he couldn't think of a single thing to say. His mouth opened and closed a few times before Maxine leaned over, “you need to talk to them”, she hissed.

“I know, I just... I don't know what to say. I-” he didn't know why he was whispering. Why was he whispering. Five couldn't understand, right? Could they smell that he was nervous? Would that, like, set them off?

“Just say anything, Five said they wouldn't understand you, just-” she took a deep breath, her tone softening, “they're probably as scared as you are, Sam. Just think about what you'd say if... If this were a mission, talk them through it.” She squeezed his hand.

“Right, yeah.” he raised his voice slightly, trying to make sure they could hear him without shouting, “Ok, Five, you're done with your... transforming... thingy... You're doing great. I- I know that must have hurt, and you're probably freaking out right now-”

Five had gone completely still, head tilted as they listened.

“I can see you on cams, standing at the door there. I'm on the other side, but you need to stay there, ok?”

Was their tail starting to wag? He was pretty sure it was. That was good, right?

“I'm going to come over there in a bit, and I'm going to open a little hole in the wall so you can have a look in, but you can't go out of that room, you're just going to stay in there for a bit, but you'll be able to see in here...”

Suddenly Five dropped back slightly and flung themself against the door with a loud thud, making Sam jump with fright. Remembering the last time he was in this sort of situation, he hurriedly got up and scrambled over to the door, praying that Five wouldn't manage to break it down. He quickly opened the hatch in the door, then pulled his hands away.

Five rushed at the door but stopped short, suddenly cautious. They crouched low to the ground and slunk forward, leaning towards it as though they were leaning over the edge of a cliff.

“heeey, five-” They jerked back, ears flat, before inching back forward. He tried again, softening his voice as much as he could, “it's ok, it's just me, see?” he put his hand as close as he dared to the hole, keeping his fingers curled in loosely and ready to pull back if Five made a sudden move. They inched over, jerking back occasionally like they expected him to make a move to attack them or something at any given moment. He stayed as still as he could as Five leaned in and he felt their breath on knuckles. Five whimpered and licked him, snuffling at his hand and pressing their nose against it. Vaguely Sam felt sure he was probably meant to remember something.

“Uuuh, Sam? Maybe you should... Move your hand?” Maxine's voice snapped him out of his concentration and ducked back as he turned his head, she continued hesitantly, “Five _did_ say to keep your hand out of lunging range in case they bit, though I think they said it'd probably be fine, but...”

Five had poked their nose back out and Sam realised he had been absent-mindedly petting the underside of their jaw. Slowly he pulled his hand back.

Five whined and pushed their head further through, following his retreating hand, it was a battle to resist the urge to go back to petting them. “It's ok Five, I'm not going anywhere, I'm still right here, I just have to-” Five's crying was getting louder by the second, drowning out his voice as they clawed frantically at the door, trying to squeeze through the hole then pulling back to chew at the edges, trying to extend the opening.

Without even thinking, Sam's hands found themselves buried in Five's fur again, which seemed to help, somewhat as the whimpering quietened slightly and they stopped chewing long enough to lick his arms before they resumed their efforts to escape. Sam looked frantically over at Maxine for help, “What do we do now?They're not- They're not trying to attack, I don't think, they just want to get out.”

Maxine scrabbled around in the desk drew and pulled out the tranquilizer pistol that was stowed there, “We have the darts Five left, we can put them under-”

“But didn't they say only to use them if they were getting too aggressive? I think they just don't like being trapped alone... Maybe I could slip in and-”

Five pulled their head back and started throwing their full weight against the door, which rattled alarmingly. Maxine loaded the darts but looked hesitant.

“I don't think you should go in there, I don't think they'd attack but we just don't know enough about their condition to-”

A loud snap came from the door, and Sam looked around to see that one of the four hinges had come loose, he turned back to Maxine, desperation creeping into his voice, “I just think it's worth trying, rather than make them sick-”

“I'm pretty sure they wouldn't want you to take the risk! I know I don't!”

“Yeah, but you _know_ how paranoid they are, they always get stuck in their own head. Maxine, _please_ just let me try”

Maxine looked between him and their rattling door and took a deep breath.

“Ok, but we need to be quick, and only open the door a crack. It's meant to open inwards, towards them so hopefully they won't be able to force it open”

There was no time to pull the couch out of the way, so Sam just scrambled on top of it and prepared to squeeze through the door as soon as it opened. Maxine had the loaded pistol tucked into her back pocket as she gripped the handle with both hands. Five's frantic cries had increased in volume again as soon as he'd disappeared from sight and they'd taken to backing further away before charging the door with renewed force.

Sam and Maxine made wordless eye-contact as they silently counted out the scant few seconds between Five hitting the door, before Maxine flung it open a few inches and Sam tumbled through, hearing the door slam behind him.

He tried to rise, to speak, but the sensation of being hit by a furry truck flung him onto his back and knocked the breath from him as Five seemed to make their best effort at drowning him in wolfish saliva while also crushing him under their massive bulk.

It might not have been so bad if they just sat on him, but Five wouldn't sit still or let up for even a second, clambering all over him all while still whimpering with excitement. He made a feeble attempt at pushing them back so he could sit up, but he probably would have had better luck trying to push the farmhouse over.

He turned his attention to his surroundings and his eyes landed on one of the jumbo sized tennis balls he'd left in there to see if they'd go for it.

He stretched his hand out and managed to flick it away so it bounced off the side of the kennel.

Five's head snapped around at the movement and Sam finally managed to haul himself upright.

He turned to the door to see Maxine cover her mouth as a snort of laughter escaped her.

“See?” He panted, “Told you it'd be fi- OH SHIT” he cut off as Five sprang up onto their hind legs and planted to a pair of paws bigger than his head on his chest, their weight knocking him back down.

Five tried to wiggle as much of themself onto his lap as possible, looking up at him with their mouth hanging open in a doggy grin. Well, not quite. The human eyes and odd shape threw it off somewhat.

At least they didn't seem interested in getting loose anymore.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> maybe the real monster was the neediness Five developed along the way


End file.
